Characters Discussed
Captain Brown (Harry Bertram)
Captain Brown (Harry Bertram), a young Scottish aristocrat whose life took a turn when he was kidnapped in his sixth year. He becomes an officer and, while stationed in India, falls in love with Julia Mannering. The Mannerings, old friends of the Bertrams, do not recognize Brown as young Harry Bertram. Through a chain of events—an interview with a Dutch smuggler and a secret revealed by an old gypsy—Bertram has his identity and inheritance restored and becomes eligible to marry Julia.
Colonel Guy Mannering
Colonel Guy Mannering, a British gentleman and a friend of the Bertrams who, being a student of astrology, predicts dire events for Harry Bertram: the boy’s fifth, tenth, and twenty-first years will be especially dangerous, he says. His predictions are more or less accurate. Mannering, finally, is happy to see his friend’s son, Harry Bertram, whom he has known as Captain Brown, restored to his inheritance, and he blesses his daughter Julia’s alliance with Bertram.
Gilbert Glossin
Gilbert Glossin, a crooked lawyer who sets in motion the machinery of the novel. It is he who arranges to have Harry Bertram kidnapped; with Harry out of the way, the lawyer is able to buy the Bertram estate, Ellangowan, inexpensively. He is finally unmasked and, while in prison awaiting trial, is killed by one of his partners in crime.
Charles Hazlewood
Charles Hazlewood, a young gentleman who loves Lucy Bertram, Harry’s sister. Once mistaking Captain Brown for a bandit, he tries to shoot him. He himself is wounded, however, when, as he and Brown wrestle for the weapon, it is discharged. He marries Lucy Bertram.
Meg Merrilies
Meg Merrilies, an old gypsy woman who played a role in the kidnapping. When young Bertram is twenty-one, she confesses her part, thus disclosing a smuggler and Glossin as her confederates; the smuggler then kills Meg before he is taken to prison.
Dirk Hatteraick
Dirk Hatteraick, a Dutch smuggler and murderer who killed the revenue officer with whom young Bertram was riding the day Dirk and Meg kidnapped him. Later, he shoots Meg and, while Glossin’s cellmate, kills him. Before the law can send him to the scaffold, Hatteraick hangs himself.
Julia Mannering
Julia Mannering, Guy Mannering’s daughter, who finally becomes Harry Bertram’s wife.
Lucy Bertram
Lucy Bertram, Harry Bertram’s sister, who marries Charles Hazlewood.
Godfrey Bertram
Godfrey Bertram, Laird of Ellangowan, who is Lucy and Harry’s father. He dies seventeen years after Harry’s kidnaping, leaving Lucy an orphan.
Sir Robert Hazlewood
Sir Robert Hazlewood, Charles’s father.
Dominie Sampson
Dominie Sampson, the faithful tutor to the Bertram children.
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